The prompt for The Gallery on Sticky Fingers this week is ‘a celebration’, a subject we can interpret in any way we choose. We can also decide whether the photo showcases our skills with the camera, or whether it is just a shot that sums up a moment. My photo falls squarely into the latter category, being taken at a painful angle from the front passenger seat of our car into the back where my two children James and Evie are seen fast asleep with their heads resting on the suitcase squashed between them. They are exhausted, on the way home from a holiday that will stay with them for a long time to come.

In February this year we spent a fabulous week partying in the Lake District, at a ‘Grogan Reunion’. My husband has five brothers and a sister spread across the British Isles and over to Norway. There is now a significant next generation too, and it is wonderful for the cousins – varying in age from 5 to 21 to get to know each other face to face, instead of over social networking sites. We spend time talking, walking, playing, eating and shopping together. The older teens form a group that never excludes the younger ones, until bedtime; much later for them than for the 5 to 10 year olds. It was no wonder that my two couldn’t keep their eyes open for more than ten minutes of our long journey back to the West Country.

Peter’s mum died when she was in her late 40’s and some say that it is the mother that often holds a family together. For my husband and his siblings it has, since they lost her, been all their own work. A real reason to celebrate.

LOL indeed! They know I took it and they hate it. It is up on facebook though so I felt if it was already on the www they could hardly complain again… I just love it though. they are so rarely like this now🙂